E3 2007: Microsoft Press Conference Report

Full coverage of Microsoft's E3 Press conference!

Microsoft's E3 2007 press conference went off without a hitch Tuesday night. As the first press conference of the "big three," it semi-officially kicked off the rest of the week's "Media & Business Summit."

The presentation opened with a violin/rock arrangement of the Halo theme -- a nice little medley of the music we all know and love performed by an Illinois quintet called Corporeal. Following that, Microsoft VP Peter Moore took the stage. His opening speech stated that every game Microsoft is showing at E3 will be out this year -- so no go for anticipated titles like Fable 2. After that, Moore started up a jam session in Rock Band with a Harmonix employee, complete with karaoke croonery. This suggested Rock Band would be 360 exclusive one way or another, but nothing was said to that effect.

Moore then announced a semi-sequel to Viva Pinata, titled Party Animals. More of a party game than a gardening sim, the game suggested that Microsoft still hasn't given up on trying to attract the younger set (and their parents). And yet, right after that was a debut of a new trailer for Mass Effect.

But then it all came back to the "family" theme when VP of Global Marketing Jeff Bell took the stage and announced an Xbox 360 version of the DVD board game Scene It? The first and only console game version of the game, Scene It? on 360 will come with a custom controller that resembles a stumpy wand with a large button at the top and four smaller ones below it. The controller-plus-game package will retail for $59.99.

Bell also took time to trumpet Microsoft's sports catalog, making very sure to mention that the EA sports games will run "twice as smooth" as last year's editions -- and some current ones, too, though Bell didn't actually mention the competition.

Talk then turned to Xbox Live. Microsoft is now beyond the 7 million-member mark on their online service, and project that turning into 10 million by this time next year. In an attempt to make sure it happens, a trailer reel was shown of the next round of upcoming Xbox Live Arcade games -- Bomberman, Every Extend Extra Extreme, Puzzle Fighter, and Bungie's original classic Marathon: Durandal, which was an apparent crowd-pleaser. Bell then announced that two new games -- Sega Genesis ports Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe -- would be available that night.

The Live talk continued, this time regarding Marketplace. Other than pumping out more download stats (500 hours of high-def video available; 2,000 total; $200M made on downloadable content), Bell announced that Disney would now be bringing some of their animated movies to Live's Video Marketplace. Another trailer featured Tarzan, Atlantis, The Emperor's New Groove and others. And in n the fall, HD movies will make their way to Europe and Canada. The Xbox 360 Elite console will also hit Europe before then.

Microsoft Game Studios VP Shane Kim then took the stage, and took time to publicly introduce PGR4, along with a demo by developers Bizarre Creations. Kim went on to present more big games coming from MGS, including Lost Odyssey from Mistwalker, which also had a new trailer with English voice work.

Kim then officially announced the upcoming releases of two 360 favorites to Windows: Viva Pinata and the PC version of Gears of War. Epic's CliffyB then took the stage to demonstrate Gears on Windows -- compatible with both XP and Vista, by the way. Gears on PC will host a wealth of new additions, from new Achievements, maps (including an editor) and play modes. Cliffy then demonstrated a fight with a new boss enemy, the hulking, cannon-toting Brumak. There was no inkling that any of the new Gears content will reach the 360 either before or after the Windows version, but it almost seems natural. Check out our gameplay video of Gears on PC here.

Peter Moore returned and emphasized the strength of Games for Windows - Live by announcing more than a dozen third-party Live-enabled titles by year's end, as well as the complete integration of Unreal Engine 3 into the Xbox/GFW Live service. Called "a big deal" by Moore, the integration of the engine is another step to ensure the ease of development between the two platforms -- especially for all those shooters that use the engine.

Another trailer with a reel of upcoming Windows games was followed by an on-stage demo of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare by Activision. The game certainly screams "modern" -- everything from the HUD down to the graphical effects such as dust being knocked from ceilings. An upcoming public beta was also announced, directing fans to CharlieOscarDelta.com for more information.

Moore then brought up two very big games coming soon to 360: Grand Theft Auto IV
and Resident Evil 5. Starting with GTA, Moore strongly indicated that the game's episodic content would only be available on Xbox, starting with two episodes by next spring. Then, the audience was shown a brand-new trailer for Capcom's Resident Evil 5, with not too much new stuff actually shown compared to previous peeks, but still a captivating look. The release? 2008.

Another game demo was Assassin's Creed by Ubisoft. Jade Raymond led the demonstration around the people-filled, Crusades-era Jerusalem, narrating as the hero ran, jumped and chased his way through the town. Raymond emphasized early on that a player could explore the entire city at their own leisure.

Following the demo, Peter Moore returned and started talking about Star Wars ... or rather, Halo's impact on culture compared to Star Wars (hint: they're apparently very similar). Moore punctuated it with a clip of the long-delayed Halo movie/short film. The clip, produced by the WETA studio in Australia and directed by Neill Blomkamp, was a visceral mix of CG and live-action footage, showing a Warthog factory and a couple of would-be Spartans getting sized up and suited up.

More Halo stuff: Moore brought out the special edition Halo 3 Xbox 360 console, a military green unit much like the Halo 3 headset released earlier. No price or details, other than it will include more Halo-theme accessories in the box. And then, finally, what everyone came to see: a new trailer of Halo 3's single-player campaign, full of drama, suspense, and -- well, just go see it; it rules.

The conference ended after that and an encore by Corporeal. Needless to say, Microsoft has a lot in store both this week and in the months ahead. And don't forget to keep your eyes fixed on E3.1UP.COM for more E3 coverage, Xbox or otherwise, direct from the show.

Halo 3 Xbox

:(

My xbox 360 elite's hardrive failed on friday :( An e68 error...after an 30 min of being on hold, another 30 min of talking they agreed to replace it. Of course they won't replace the game saves (no more maxed crackdown characters :( sadly) and I had to pay the 15 bucks to ship it...
I like my xbox a lot...but a warranty doesn't cut it...i've heard numbers as high as a 33% failure rate on xboxs (no idea what it really is of course) but failure and free replacement just isn't as cool as a still working xbox...I have two new games...I wanna play...not sit on 1up and whine about not being able to play...

Hardware Issues -- thanks

SelfishAssassin, thanks for the info. If that is really a solution to the hardware problems, then MS needs to make a big splash and get the word out. As Sony continues to close the games and services gap, the hardware debate will become a bigger deal for some customers.

hardware issues-acknowledged

Microsoft has addressed the issue. Just read Peter Moores statement. Microsoft has added epoxy to the boards to keep the chips from popping off and placed an extra heatsink inside. If you end up having a problem yours will be updated. I have a launch system zero problems.

Fairly impressive

M$ is probably showing the strongest overall picture as of right now, which seems to justify their head-start on the Wii and PS3. My only two issues are that nothing groundbreaking was revealed, and in their sales chart, how many of those dollars came from people buying new 360s to replace their out-of-warranty fire hazard?

Hardware issues -- SelfishAssassin

The 3-year warranty is fine for people, like me, who already own a 360. But it is no substitute for eliminating the actual underlying problems. Of my gamer friends who have not yet made their next-gen choice, 80% are leaning towards the PS3, partly because of 360 problems. And I really can't blame them. This is a must-solve issue for MS -- a lower price won't be enough to smooth the issue over. It is a fundamental credibility issue for MS.

Hardware issues

Hardware issues was addressed before the E3 show with Microsoft announcing the new 3 yr warranty for anyone that gets the three red lites. That should give ya enuff confidence to reccomend a 360 to your friend.
Also, its weird how guys like Jack Tretton cant get up in front of a crowd and just start talking...the whole time Jack read the teleprompter and in the process it came off very very robotic! Sounded horrible. Same with that Jeff dude from Microsoft....wow that guy was bad. I was waiting for him to have a short circuit and stop working...I mean was that guy really human? Seemed like a robot to me.

Need more info on hardware issues

The games MS showed at the conference were great, but I was disappointed that MS did not say anything about the 360 hardware issues -- this is the biggest issue facing the 360 now. I personally would never recommend to a friend any consumer electronics product with the failure rate of the 360, at any price. MS needs to definitively eliminate this issue before the holiday season.

Microsoft has best line-up for Holiday 07!!!

With games like Assassins Creed, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Halo 3 and the full line-up of EA's top selling sports games, Xbox 360 seems to be taking another major step ahead of competition. Nintendo of course has exciting games like Mario Galaxy and the newly announced Wii Fit, its lack of big third-party games keeps it behind the towering white behemoth. Sony also has a good line-up with games such as MGS4 (Which may not even be a PS3 exclusive), Killzone and Heavenly Sword, but still, its lack of games has it lagging behind even the Wii. I support Peter Moore's quote that this is the best holiday line-up in history!!!

and the winner is.........

If they gave an award for best show, i am sure Microsoft would of taken that trophy. Microsoft only focused on games coming out this year except for the part where they showed the new RE5 trailer and bragged about an exclusive trailer for Xbox live in July 26. I will be buying a 360 soon now.

Did they announce any new games?

Not bad.......but problematic

I'm not a huge Halo fan so all the Halo stuff didn't do it for me, except the band. I loved, loved, loved the Assasins Creed demo and I'm pissed I missed the Mass Effect video. G4 went to commercial and when they came back the video was done. I will say this, after the event I thought "damn" August - November is gonna be expensive for me. Madden 08, Virtua Fighter, Bioshock, Call of Duty 4, Assasins Creed and Mass Effect are all games I'm fiending for. That's almost $400 in games before December. And since I do have a damn job and family, how the hell will I ever find time for all those games? Well I guess in the grand scheme of things it's not such a bad problem to have. I could be stuck with no games I want.

Weak

They shouldn't have even made an appearance at E3. All the games shown, except RE5, have been shown for the last 3 or 4 months. Assassin's Creed isn't looking any better, and Halo 3's single player doesn't look better than the multiplayer, as everyone was speculating it would be. Microsoft's conference in one word: Sucked.

Good JOB M$

Hello Fellow Gamers. The M$ E3 Press Conference was dead on. The games are what I want to play. The online service is getting even better. We get Colored controllers, also the mini keypad for it. I mean .. what more could you ask for?
Granted they didn't mention games for next year or in development, but they did state that all the games shown will be out THIS YEAR. Not next year this year. Also the demos for these games will also be playable this year. I would like to see Nintendo, & Sony do the same.
EvanT - SONy will need all the HYpe, excitement, & lies it can muster. Cause Nintendo & M$ are going to wipe the floor with them this holiday season.
daMIAshado - What were you expecting? With exclusives going the way of the dinosaur, I'm not surprised @ all. Besides would you rather play the x360 version of the game or the PS3 version? the X360 version of course. It offers more in terms of features & online play (which M$ still has the BEST online service for a console).
Only time will tell. Enjoy your games. I know I will on my X360.

wow

Okay, but uninspiring

The MS conference was solid, but somehow not very exciting. With the 360/PS3 games gap closing steadily, MS needed more than game announcements to maintain momentum. The recent PS3 sales spike could mark the beginning of a Sony surge, particularly if Sony generates excitement at their conference today.

Australia...

Dissapointing...

The games announced where already known and the few surprises were games like the new Viva Pi?±ata, WTF?
Since MS feels they have won against the Ps3 they are now pursuing the "Casual" market of the Wii, but there is a thing called overreaching, I hope they don't spread themselves too thin.
In the end it was all about Halo and the god awful Games for Windows. Come on MS you can up the ante a lot more. Sadly when all is said and done Nintendo and Sony will have to do a really horrible botched up job to win the "worst press conference of E3 award".
PS for the fans: Maybe on TGS MS will take out the big guns.

LOL

i was watching attack of the show and i remember them speculating that no new RE would be shown, haaa, lost odyssey and assassin's creed were crazy! i hate how g4 kept cutting to commercials, didn't even to see the mass effect trailer cuz of them...

Halo 3 rocks!

idiots swarm...

I was wondering how long it takes fanboys to swarm and defend something not really being attacked. Sony or nintendo wasn't even mentioned & already someone says "ps3 lovers need to go blow your horn in another post". WTF?! And another person says "it [360] already is #1 among all 3 next-gen consoles" Its been out for almost 2 years and sold about 10-11 million. PS3 about 8 months and sold near 4 million. And Wii about 8 months and near 9 million. The lead is not that great and for the time being means little.
Face it the press conference sucked period. All old multi-platform extras that are coming out in a few months anyways (ON OTHER SYSTEMS TO!). We could see that crap and the arcade games on any game website but E3 is supposed to be big. Sonic and Golden Axe? Get SEGA arecade collection. So please no more "It was solid", "They are confident", or "IMAGINE someone that didn't do that coming into this press conference and wanting to buy a console this holiday season. This would blow them away". It sucked.

Disappointing

That was horrendeusly disappointing. This is what the wait was for? A bunch of Arcade games and a few tidbits of games we already know about that are coming in a few months? Most of the big ones weren't even exclusives. RE5, Rock Band, COD4, Assasin's Creed and GTA4. The only remotely interesting thing was the talk about how Vista & Live are blending more together (I personally don't care but it has a lot of potential) and the Halo 3 trailer, which wasn't that amazing anyways.
I really hope Sony and Nintendo has something better. With Sony anouncing a price drop right before I'm thinking they have something big for the show in their back pocket. Also somebody said COD4 could be a Killzone killer...COD4 is not an exclusive so no.

For most of us, underwhelming (X07 instead) ...

... but that's because we religiously read every bit of news we can find. But imagine someone that didn't do that coming into this press conference and wanting to buy a console this holiday season. This would blow them away, particularly because ALL of these games WILL be playable this year.
The rest of us will have to wait until X07 ...

Yeah

Some of you ps3 lovers need to go blow your horn in another post. This conference was about this fall and although it didnt include those jaw dropping announcements we are used to with E3 it was pretty solid. Microsoft as you can tell is confident in their lineup and they should be. Nintendo might have just a handful of games this fall worth buying and Sony is in the same boat. Expect them to both be about 2008 and beyond.

MS is gonna be #1...

this time next year. although none of the announcements were too surprising, i still think that the 360 has the momentum and user base that will propel above the Wii and PS3 by this time next year easily. it already is #1 among all 3 next-gen consoles and i feel the Wii will start to taper off in another 3-6 months.
Assassin's Creed looks super-great. the XBLA titles coming out really look amazing and the announcements of DMC 4, possible MGS4 and lots of exclusive content for the 360 versions of highly anticipated games like GTA 4 and RE 5.
hell, i already downloaded Golden Axe and Sonic tonight b/c they are definitely worth $5, especially with the achievements and leaderboards, oh yeah also ONLINE co-op play [golden axe]. Nintendo sucks at bringing emulated games to the Wii simply b/c they are too expensive and don't have anything over their original counterparts. their Virtual Console thing is way over hyped and i used to have a Wii so i know.
but i still can't wait to see what Sony and Nintendo have in store for their respective press events.

Lackluster

I would say that it was a solid but forgettable press conference. Not much really exciting new stuff out of this one. My opinion of the 360 is exactly the same as it was before the conference. I'm looking forward to a lot of the 360 games this year but it didn't offer me anything new. It's just like a release list for 2007 more then a press conference.
I have to wonder id Microsoft left the door open a little for Sony to steal their thunder. If Sony announces some big news there will be no news from Microsoft to distract from that.

Boring as hell

Can we please move E3 back to May? Really, 1st GTA trailer would have been part of Microsoft's presentation if this was in May.
Why no fable anything? Lionhead Studios is really pissing me off. I swear its like there the new Duke Nukem. Seems like 5 years down the road, where still going to hear just how awesome Fable 2 is going to be.
And who gives a shit about scene it? No one wanted to sit through a 5 minute presentation on just how great scene it is. I'm also going to say that no one cares about your wanna be numbchuck controllers that come bundled with the game that no one watching E3 will care about.
RE5, with nothing cool shown, just a bit more about the location.
GTA was running on XBOX 360 this whole time. Good to know, but any other news? No? Well then lets not keep praising the game then.
Live action Halo 3 trailer? Who gives a shit. No one cares about the side military personnel. Its all about master chief. If it doesn't have spartans, then it doesn't need to be there.
Assasin's Creed was probably the best thing there, to be honest. Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong about the Halo 3 trailer, but nothing that interesting about it either. Plus it was nice to actually see something run.
Call of Duty 4 needed more attention. This was there anti-Killzone thing for the night (Its not like they had Halo 3 playable)

Very Weak Keynote

Which would i buy?

A ps3. Rachet and clank, FFXIII, uncharted, MGS4 Lair, heavenly sword, etc. Also at least with the ps3 you getting wifi and a blu ray player out the box. Those features would cost you 300 more with any Xbox 360.

Lame

Why say only showing titles coming this year then show a trailer for resident evil 5, a game that is planned on being released on multi platforms? Everybody knew what was coming this year for the 360 but is what's coming out next year going to be good enough to convince the tens of millions of undecided gamers people to buy a 360 next year?

Solid, if not mind blowing...

It was a solid showing.
Resident Evil 5 was a bit of a surprise, and it looked good (if a bit early) but otherwise it was a by-the-numbers affair.
I do honestly think they have the best line up of titles coming this holiday season.
It'll be interesting to see if the consumers bite.
Side note: I think the Halo branded console is a bit goofy. I get that there are a lot of Halo fans that are waiting for the release of Halo 3 to jump on board, but if you're going to do something like this, do it right.
Bundle in the game.

Felt like a sales pitch

No price drop?

I already own a 360; but I'm disappointed. I do want to see MS win this generation. Maybe this is how they'll get the $1 billion to pay to extend the warranty for 3 years? A $479 360 Elite or a $499 PS3...which would you buy? I read an article today suggesting they drop the Elite to $399, the Platinum to $349, and the Core to $249. Made sense to me.